I am a Senior Political Contributor at Forbes and the official 'token lefty,' as the title of the page suggests. However, writing from the 'left of center' should not be confused with writing for the left as I often annoy progressives just as much as I upset conservative thinkers. In addition to the pages of Forbes.com, you can find me every Saturday morning on your TV arguing with my more conservative colleagues on "Forbes on Fox" on the Fox News Network and at various other times during the week serving as a liberal talking head on other Fox News and Fox Business Network shows. I also serve as a Democratic strategist with Mercury Public Affairs.

Congratulations to President Obama on his victory and to Governor Mitt Romney for staging a hard fought campaign.

So, what have we learned?

Here is my top-five list:

1. It’s the demographics, stupid.

As frequent readers of this column and the comments section— or those who have listened to me discussing this issue on television and radio—know, I have said from the outset that this election was not nearly so much about the economy as it was about the demographics. As we review how President Obama put together last night’s victory, we see just how true this is.

Unlike four years ago when Barack Obama managed to win men by just one percentage point over John McCain, this time around the exit polling reveals that the President lost the men to Governor Romney—taking only 45 percent to Romney’s 52 percent—but still succeeded in winning the election.

The Obama win is very much the result of a 12 point edge with women—including winning the hugely important unmarried women category by a stunning 38 point margin—the 93 percent of the African-American vote and 69 percent of the Hispanic vote.

This how the presidency is won in modern day America.

Of equal importance is the fact that Obama’s tally with the growing Hispanic community improved by 4 percent over his 2008 totals.

The message is loud and clear and those politicians and parties that refuse to hear it will face a very depressing future. The demographics of America have changed big time. Every month, 50,000 Hispanics turn 18 years old. The very fact that the GOP could not win this election when running against a president with high unemployment numbers and a healthcare reform law that Americans— allegedly—hate, tells the tale:

The era of our government being chosen by old white guys is, officially, over.

2. Eight hundred million dollars does not buy you an election after all.

This morning, the United States of America is awash with billionaires and millionaires waking to a collective hangover borne of the realization that they have wasted about 800 million dollars. Let that sink in for a moment as one struggles to imagine how these people can cast this catastrophic loss as anything other than the single stupidest investment of their wealthy lives.

This, in my estimation, is a victory for average Americans that is every bit as important as the Obama win. It turns out all that cash does not buy an election after all. Take that Citizens United!

3. Maybe we don’t hate Obamacare quite so much as we thought we did.

I know this is a tough one for many readers to swallow, but the moment has come to face this reality—Obamacare is here to stay.

There were some other big winners of the 2012 election beyond the politicians. That would be the pollsters who have been under serious fire throughout this election, consistently facing a conservative punditocracy claiming that their polling processes were grossly misleading as a result of an outdated modeling structure that over-counted Democrats.

It was this professed failure in the modeling that, we were told, would shock us all on election night when Romney would produce an unexpected landslide electoral victory for the GOP.

Of course, that didn’t happen.

In reviewing the poll of polls, it turns out that virtually all of the major polling firms were well within the margin of error—both nationally and in their battleground state surveys. They got it right—conservative pundits (are you listening Karl Rove?) and radio talk show hosts got it completely and utterly wrong. To that end, Nate Silver of the New York Times deserves a special shout out. Despite the conservative punditocracy’s constant claims that Nate would meet his demise on election night, Silver hit his predictions right on the nose.

In many ways, Bill Clinton won his third term last night. He may not have been elected president, but there is absolutely no question that the man who did win very well might have gone down to defeat but for the efforts of President William Jefferson Clinton.

Beginning with Clinton’s masterful speech at the Democratic National Convention where he explained it all in a way that Obama could never quite manage, it was Bill Clinton who managed to convince wavering voters from the key demographics that it was ok to stay with Barack Obama.

Bill Clinton is back in the White House. He may not be sitting in the big chair or holding court in the Oval Office, but he is filling an enormously important seat at the table.

And if Secretary Hillary Clinton decides she wants to run for the job in 2016?

I think it is more than evident that that the keys to the historically talented Obama campaign machine will be handed over to Hillary wrapped in a bow and with the appreciation of a grateful president.

Bonus: Donald Trump must now go away.

We’ve endured Trump’s grandstanding and fear mongering for far too many years. Have we now, at last, had enough?

At a point during last night’s vote count when it looked like Romney might win the popular vote (he didn’t) with Obama taking the electoral college and, therefore, the presidency, Trump graced us with the following tweets:

“This election is a total sham and a travesty. We are not a democracy!”

“More votes equals a loss…revolution!”

Apparently, being Trump means never having to acknowledge the election of 2000.

In recognition that Trump has far outlived his usefulness as an entertainer and provocateur, I make this post-election gift to you all–I will, never again, write the name Donald Trump on the pages of this column. He is now, officially, dead to me.

Now, I believe the 2016 New Hampshire primary is set for…..

contact Rick at thepolicypage@gmail.com and follow me on Twitter @rickungar

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Comments

Thank you, Rick, for brightening my day, as always, something I’d never have thought Forbes would offer me. As long as we’re banishing the wretched Trump, however, could we also say farewell to Karl Rove and Grover Norquist, two other aged white men whose presence and manipulations are both archaic and fetid?

Mr Ungar, now that I got a revised understanding on the definition for “winners” and “losers” which is due to income rather than state of health, i gain a plausible understanding of the report. i understand now your outrage at my perceived belligerence. I only based my own disbelief at what dangerously little knowledge i had on the issue and it clears up now. I do recognise the need to charge everyone a more or less common rate for insurance and i fully support this idea even if it means letting us take responsibility for our own healthcare. :)

Excellent! It is amazing how understanding can change everything. I am sympathetic to the difficulties people have with this as this is not a simple area to understand and follow. On top of that, those with political interests-on all sides- bombard us with information that is often, at best, only partially true. I really think that the reason there has been such a negative reaction to Obamacare is that people simply don’t understand what it means-and the administration has done a very poor job in helping Americans to get a better grasp on it. I often find (not always) that when people do understand it better, they have a much better reaction.

If 93% of blacks and overwhelming proportions of various groups voted for Obama and leftist ideas, doesn’t it make sense that conservatives should support increasing this demographic shift even more – oh wait…

Perhaps if Republicans identified with the white community just a little more they could have won and could continue to win. Maybe, just maybe, it would be easier to grab 2-3% more of the white vote than 50% of some other group.